Gorgeous weather for the weekend

This weekend's weather is phenomenal! We were outside most of Saturday.  We invited Muddy, Uncle Scott, Cousin Graham, Aunt Erin and Uncle Rob over for a grilled dinner and moon bouncing.  Muddy left after we ate, but everyone else stayed til 9:40pm! 

The swingset is coming together nicely.  The wood is all the original, but Addie received new pieces for her birthday, so it's being revitalized.

This was supposed to be the "now everyone SMILE picture."

This was the "make a silly face picture."

Although it's blurry, you can still see Addie very happy that Daddy put the fountain up! She was D.R.E.N.C.H.E.D.

Just handsome Ben, who got his hair cut in the morning.

The truth

I neglected to mention that on Friday night, Onkteb finally arrived to our house, after a loooong commute from Connecticut. He also brought presents.  Among them were shirts from Aunt Gail from her trip to England in April.

The most appropriate, truthful shirt Addie has ever worn, I swear!

This one jumped in the wrong place- sorry. It was a surprise on my camera that Muddy had taken.  Addie and Ben got the opportunity to "paint" our house the other day. They loved it, just as I did as a child.

You can't read it well, but it says "Little Miss Chatterbox." I think she's worn it 4 out of 6 days this week!

Video!!

This is what Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda gave Addie (and Ben) for her birthday! It's quite possibly the cutest thing ever!

It works indoor and outdoors! We have some serious fun on this horse! It holds up to 160 lbs! So Aunt Amanda rode it at Addie's party. I've been galloping around too! It's really, really, really fun! I think a second one might be in A & B's future, so they can ride together into the sunset (with supervision, of course!)

I have many, many more, but I need to run to work now. I'll load more, plus pictures tonight hopefully.

There's a 4 year old in da house!!

Well, another successful birthday is gone.  Addie turned 4 on Sunday! Mother Nature toyed with my emotions all week long, with rain forecasted for Sunday afternoon- and knowing that we had 16 children, plus their families, plus our families, etc- the likelihood of in inside party was very real. As of 6:45am it was pouring rain. By 11:45am, the last droplet fell from the sky.  The temperature was only a high of 63, but that doesn't stop 4 year olds from being outside.

There wasn't really a "theme" this year. 

Here's her cake. It's Tinkerbell.

Posing with a juice box. Muddy made her dress, of course.

An idea of the children. We bought Addie the new slide for her birthday.  A great purchase! Kids had FUN on that! Brian and I built the new ladder two weekends ago.  

Posing getting ready to open presents.

Hugging her BFF Julianna.  There were 6 children from KinderCare here, plus Addie's teacher! It was so great to see them all!

I'll post some videos of the festivities later on!

Missing LouLou and Bub!

Saturday afternoon Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda came into town for Addie's birthday. LouLou and Bub were going to come too, but LouLou got sick. :( So J&A brought Addie and Ben gifts on LouLou and Bub's behalf.

Here's the loot. (Note there are no pictures of the oodles of candy that was sent. Most of it got ripped into faster than any adult could anticipate! )

Addie got the cutest Minnie Mouse bathing suit and towel!

Benjamin got a Lightning McQueen bathing suit and towel!

Now the side story to the bathing suits is this: while we were cleaning up after dinner, Jeremy and Brian looked outside to the street and noticed a school bus going by and Guppy's minivan move. They looked at each other and said, "The van just moved, right?!" We ran outside and a neighbor got out of his car and said, "that school bus just hit your van!" The bus took off like a bat out of hell down the street.

Jeremy started running. and running. and running. Brian and Onkteb get in his car and drive off trying to find the school bus. Next thing I know, Jeremy calls my cell and says, "I'm with the bus and driver right now." HE CAUGHT the bus on foot! Seriously, I was shocked.

Very long story short, the bus driver was uber lost. She turned down the city streets, which really aren't made for school buses (parking on both sides of a one way street). She said she didn't know, etc. I called the police. It was a nice night out, and the police were busy with other more emergent issues, so it took quite some time for them to arrive.

Back to the bathing suits, Aunt Amanda spent all of this time corralling Addie and Ben. How'd she do it? They watered our freshly planted flowers all night long via filling water bottles at the powder room sink and carefully carrying them out to the flowers. Addie and Ben got wet on more than one occasion (as did Aunt Amanda!) but lucky for them, they were wearing bathing suits! So, thanks LouLou and Bub for anticipating what we didn't expect!!

We missed you! We're looking forward to our Disney trip with you in a few months!

What happens when your big sister dresses you...

Addie wanted to help by getting herself and Benjamin dressed this morning.  This is what she chose for each of them.  Guess she likes pink shirts and purple pants, huh?

 

Mother's Day at Chanticleer

The Mother's Day tradition of beautiful pictures at Chanticleer continued!

Cute action shot of Addie on the hill

You can't get much more sheer excitement then this, can you?

The BEST picture of Addie.

Ben's latest thing, sticking his tongue out just as his picture is being taken.

Adorable.

The annual picture in the Mouse House.

Muddy after holding Benjamin on her knees for the previous picture.

The area of tall grass was lots of fun for Ben

Find me a photography contest to enter this in!

That's Ben in the far distance. He took off running and we thought he'd stop at the rock benches.  Nope. He kept going.  Brian and I took off in a mad dash.  In the very back of the picture is a fence that separates Chanticleer from a road.  Ben ran all the way to the fence, tagged it and said, "I won." Brian wasn't too happy...

From a distance, a cute family picture.  Up close, Ben has stuck his tongue out!

Addie smelling a flower.

This might be the cutest picture of Addie.

Kim and Tom on their thrones

He can't get much cuter, can he?